Accused murderer promised victim he would return

Norwich - Hours before he was gunned down on Lake Street last month, Namdi Smart had stood up to the man who would be accused of killing him.

Details of the Aug. 27 shooting and a robbery that occurred earlier that night are contained in arrest warrant affidavits that were unsealed this week in New London Superior Court. Four days after the shooting, Norwich police charged Darnell X. Moore, 21, with murdering Smart, 31. Moore is being held in lieu of $1.75 million at the Northern Correctional Institution, the state’s supermax facility for problem prisoners.

According to the affidavit, Smart confronted Moore, who is known as “Boo-boo,” after Moore robbed a man and slashed his arm with a box cutter in front of several witnesses, then took a bottle of vodka belonging to Smart. The witness said that at the time, about 20 people were hanging around 35 Lake St., shooting dice, drinking or playing cards. A witness told police Smart and Moore were “chest to chest” and that Smart, who was bigger than Moore, dared Moore to try robbing him. Moore left after pointing his fingers at Smart like a gun and saying, “I got something for you later,” according to the warrant.

The same witness told police that she was in her apartment when she saw Moore come back to Lake Street wearing a black hooded sweatshirt over his head. She said that with a lot of witnesses looking on, Moore came around the side of the house and confronted Smart as he sat on the steps. She said Moore told Smart, “I told you I’d be back.” Then, as Smart tried to stand up and pull a gun out of his waistband, Moore put his gun to the left side of Smart’s head and shot him.

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